The present invention relates to an elastomeric glove with enhanced grip strength.
Surgical, medical and industrial elastomeric gloves are typically manufactured with a smooth external finish or micro-texture so that the glove user experiences a sensitive feel and hand-like touch while wearing the glove. However, it has been found that when such gloves get wet, there can be a decrease in grip strength
One approach used to increase the grip strength of surgical, medical and industrial elastomeric gloves has focused on surface treatment using a variety of chemicals (e.g., acid, tackifier). In particular, gloves have been treated with acid to surface etch the glove and tackify the grip. Although somewhat effective in increasing the grip strength of surgical, medical and industrial elastomeric gloves, acid treatment has several disadvantages. For example, acid treatment necessitates the disposal of environmentally harmful acid wastes which must be discarded. In addition, costly secondary processing steps are needed for the acid treatment, and the physical and mechanical properties of the gloves are potentially degraded by the acid used to etch the glove surface.
A second approach to increasing grip strength has centered on using textured molds to form a visually bumpy, positive-textured surface on the glove. Although this technique may improve the grip of the molded glove, the surface bumps may, in fact, reduce the surface area of the glove available for gripping an object. This decrease in surface area could ultimately negatively effect the gripping strength of a glove molded with a positive textured surface.